MESOTHELIOMA

On October 29, Ramco Systems, an Indian provider of enterprise business applications and accompanied services, announced that its ASEAN and European operations have continued to drive revenues during the second quarter of FY 2001-02. Building on their strong performances in the previous quarter, Q2 revenues in ASEAN and Europe grew by 37% and 24% respectively over the corresponding period last year. However, the company cites the general US slowdown and the tragic events of September 11 had an impact on its US revenues, which witnessed a drop of 30% over the corresponding period last year.

For the first half of FY 2001-02, the company has posted global revenues of $22.05 million and a loss of $4.82 million, which compares to $24.34 million (a 9% drop) and $2.76 million respectively. This was mainly attributed to investments in product development and to efforts to build long-term strategic partnerships with large global corporations. The company has reportedly invested about 50% of its manpower on development of the next-generation ERP suite of products that are expected to be ready in early FY 2002-03. During the second quarter, ERP solutions have reportedly registered a 20% growth in revenues compared to the corresponding period last year. This would be a much-needed revival in demand for ERP solutions worldwide and should augur well for the next-generation ERP suite of products currently under development.

This, Part One of a three-part Event Note, covers recent announcements by Ramco Systems. Part Two will cover the Market Impact of the announcements, and Part Three will discuss the Challenges faced by Ramco Systems and make User Recommendations.

Joint Ventures and Partnerships

During the quarter, the company's Swiss subsidiary entered into a joint venture with Triamun AG of Switzerland, a provider of integrated solutions for the health care sector. The two companies are jointly developing advanced solutions for the health care sector. These solutions, which are specially tailored to the needs of medical practices, pharmacies, laboratories, health insurance companies and hospitals, will be marketed and implemented by both companies.

Ramco Systems also recently announced that partnerships signed during the last several months and the ones to be signed in the future would be the growth driver for the company in the coming times.

The company has recently signed partnerships with a few major global corporations. As an example, on October 15, Enterasys Networks, a leader in the Enterprise Networking Solution, announced a partnership with Ramco Systems. According to this agreement Ramco will offer Enterasys' Networking products as part of its Enterprise solutions to its customers. Enterasys offers data networking solutions to the enterprise customers in association with technology partners like Nokia, F5 and Siemens. The Enterasys flagship products include Matrix and Vertical Horizon Switches, XPEDITION Switch Routers, NetSight Manager, Aurorean VPN products, Roam About wireless LAN, Dragon Intrusion Detection products. In addition, Firewalls from Nokia, Load Balancers from F5 and Convergence Gateways from Siemens form the complete solution for the enterprise.

System Integration Services

The Enterprise Networking division of Ramco Systems with expertise in designing and implementing networks will offer System Integration services to enterprise customers. The Enterprise Networking Solutions division of Ramco Systems provides Network and System Integration solutions and Information security solutions. The networking services offered by Ramco include Network Consultancy Services, Network Design & Implementation, Network Management Services, Facilities Management Services and Educational Services.

Further, on August 30, Ramco announced a strategic partnership with webMethods Inc., one of the leading providers of integration software. The two companies are partnering to meet the growing demand among companies for enterprise application integration (EAI) services. Combining Ramco's applications development and implementation expertise with webMethods integration platform could give customers integrated solutions that meet organizational needs and drive business efficiencies. Globally, Ramco has enabled companies in the aerospace, chemical, building products, utility, food and other industries to operate more efficiently with Ramco solutions.

This concludes Part One of a three-part note on Ramco Systems. Part Two will discuss the Market Impact of recent announcements and Part Three will cover the Challenges faced by Ramco Systems and make User Recommendations.


SOURCE:http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/ramco-systems-diversity-marshaled-through-flexibility-16540/